The present invention is designed for receiving multiple paperboard container blanks that have been cut from corrugated sheet material in a rotary die cutter.
Such rotary die cutters normally eject the cut blanks at a lineal exit speed of several hundred if not thousands of feet per minute. Such an outfeed speed presents a very significant problem in providing equipment that is capable of efficiently stacking such blanks without either damaging the blanks or slowing the operation of the rotary die cutter. The blanks are rather fragile and can be easily damaged. The problem has existed for a number of years. An attempt to provide responsive stacking equipment such is shown in the Lamb U.S. Pat. No. 2,205,767 issued June 25, 1970. Recently further attempts have been made from equipment illustrated in the Ward et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,500,243 issued Feb. 19, 1985 and the Frost U.S. Pat. No. 4,740,193 issued Apr. 26, 1988.
One of the principal objects of this invention is to provide a corrugated container blank stacker that is capable of operating at very high speeds without damaging the fragile container blanks.
These and other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent upon reading the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment.